There was an error starting Zotero.

zachwhalen
Hi,

I'm having a hard time getting Zotero on my Mac. Just for some background, I normally keep my zotoro data on a flash drive and carry it with me, setting the custom location in whatever browser I happen to use. At this point, though, I'm just trying to get Zotero running at all.

When I go to open it, I get "There was an error starting Zotero."

I reinstalled it a few times, and followed the directions for repairing my profile -- still no luck. Since my data is elsewhere, I also deleted my database each time.

I checked in the error console, and I'll paste my results below. It should be noted, however, that these errors appear when Firefox starts, not when I click the Zotero button. I realize the first of these may not be Zotero specific, but i'm posting it anyway in case it's triggering a cascade of failures.

Error: Warning: unrecognized command line flag -psn_0_5898241

Source File: file:///Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.js
Line: 576

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsILocalFile.persistentDescriptor]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js :: getZoteroDirectory :: line 302" data: no]
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js
Line: 302

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "ServiceManager::GetService returned failure code:" nsresult: "0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/include.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 4" data: no]

Error: Zotero has no properties
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/browser.js
Line: 744

Error: Zotero has no properties
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/overlay.xul
Line: 407

Error: Zotero has no properties
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/itemPane.js
Line: 51


So, any suggestions?
  • Tjowens
    Can you try disabling any other Firefox extensions you are using and see if the problem persists.
  • dstillman
    Looks like you might just have the storage directory set to an invalid directory. You can access the storage location setting from Tools->Add-ons, even if the Zotero pane won't open.
  • zachwhalen
    edited April 7, 2008
    Ah, I didn't realize I could do that ...

    So I can open the preferences dialog, and it is showing that it's pointing to a custom directory, with the directory path being a large string of gibberish similar to an MD5 hash. So that's a logical reason for it to fail starting up.

    However, I can't edit this path, and though I can switch the radio button to the default setting, there's no OK button to accept the change. Accordingly, nothing changes.

    How can I edit this directly? I thought it would revert to the default when I re-installed it. Where is this preference being stored?
  • dstillman
    Macs don't have OK buttons in preferences windows. Clicking the radio button for the default location should give you a prompt to restart. If that doesn't happen, go to about:config, Control-click (right-click on Windows) on the setting extensions.zotero.dataDir, and click Reset, and also make sure extensions.zotero.useDataDir is set to false.

    The long string is what Mozilla calls a "persistent descriptor" and is how the data directory location is stored on Macs. If you're seeing it in the list rather than a regular path, something went wrong, though.
  • zachwhalen
    Well, I returned to the office where this affected Mac lives, ready to deal with about:config, and found Zotero to be working normally in the browser. It had been turned off overnight, so apparently the powercycle allowed Firefox to clear the lingering preference.

    Thanks for the help.
  • scholzilla
    I have the same problem and also wen through multiple installs, etc. However, when I go to Tools-->Add-ons and look at the Advanced preferences tab, I can't retrieve a database directory at all. I'm running linux and if you could tell me what file I need to look for, I can find it from a shell. It's a bit strange because when I first installed zotero, it all worked fine....

    Thanks.
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